Page 116 of Deception

Time slips past.

Then there’s none left.

I still hear her scream, the door cracking back, the silhouettes rushing in.

Her warning to duck saved my ass. A split second later and I would have been ground beef. Fortunately, most of the shooters were sloppy, unloading their guns into the door, not following whichever way I could have dived. Inexperienced muscle.

Inexperienced or not, they messed up coming here tonight. Seeing that bastard’s hand wrapped around my lover’s face drove me insane.

Which is also why I wiped them out, even though they had us beat four to one.

As soon as the bullets stopped, I was through the door bashing it across the hallway, knocking one of the guards to the ground. The butt of my pistol bashed his head in and I was gone, dashing down the carpeted hallway.

Shadows danced along the periphery of my vision but I didn’t see them. My people dodged out of my way.

My enemies were fleeting obstacles in the way of my hunt to save my love.

I slashed and shot until my gun was empty.

Then I took whatever I could find, bun, knife, then a billy club. My brothers cleared the dining hall, the upstairs, driving them back into the entryway.

“Aless! Stop!” Adriano’s deep shout barely registered.

I chased the van carrying her away until my feet bled. Ero pulled up beside me a mile from the house in his Mercedes. Forcing me to return.

By the time I got back, most of the survivors were lined up, waiting for me to interrogate.

“Minimal losses.” The words drag me back to the present. Adriano’s eyes are sunken. He hasn’t been sleeping.

“Good. Who did we lose?”

“Gabe, Danny. A few of the house staff were shot. Tanya was killed.”

“Fuck.” My fist hammers the desk. But it’s a small loss in the face of the hoards of intruders we wiped out. Bodies form a wall out front, just below my window on the driveway. Never has there been a battle like this on our territory, verifiably out in the open.

“I will deliver the news to their families myself. Is the cleanup crew here yet?”

“Ten minutes out.” Ciro chirps, still on the phone.

“Any sign of the cops?”

“No.” Adriano answers.

“Doctor Hinoto?” I grip the edge of the desk, desperate to be gone, hunting for the only thing that really matters to me right now. They have her.

“He’s tending to the wounded now. We got this, Alessandro.”

“This is too far. An invasion? A fucking all-out assault?” I’m up, pacing, my fist splintering the door frame as I drive my knuckles home. “How did they get in without raising an alarm?”

“They had layouts of the house, clearly. Disarmed the security system, plus the numbers. They overwhelmed the guards before they could do a damn thing.”

“Ciro, I want you to check in with everyone. Take statements. I want every detail. Someone has to know something. Where’s Ero?”

Adriano tongues the inside of his cheek, avoiding my gaze.

“Where the fuck is he?”

“He took off after he dropped you off. He tailed one of the vans for a bit.”

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